Jury hears of royal blackmail plot

A member of the Royal Family fell victim to a £50,000 blackmail plot over claims he performed a gay sex act on one of his employees, a court has heard.

The employee, said to be his "right hand man", was also recorded taking drugs and making "scandalous" remarks about other royals, a jury heard.

Ian Strachan, 31, and Sean McGuigan, 41, tried to sell the tapes to a series of tabloid newspapers and the publicist Max Clifford, the Old Bailey was told.

But when those attempts failed they turned their attentions to the married royal, who cannot be named for legal reasons, and tried to blackmail him, it is alleged.

They were arrested after a meeting in a London hotel with a man they thought was an aide to the royal but was in fact an undercover police officer, jurors heard.

Strachan, of Imperial Wharf, Fulham, south west London, and McGuigan, of Latchmere Road, Battersea, south London, deny the charge that they made "an unwarranted demand with menaces" of £50,000.

They are said to have recorded eight hours of audio and video footage of the royal's employee, in which he made "allegations of impropriety" about his boss's business practices as well as claims about other royals.

The man, known as witness D, was also filmed using a Harrods card to take cocaine, jurors were told. In addition he claimed the royal confided in him about "everything", and that he had letters that he gave him.

Mark Ellison QC, prosecuting, said: "There were three audio files apparently asserting that the member of the Royal family who employed him had performed an act of oral sex on him."

He said the act was said to have taken place on the kitchen floor at a party.